Food Safety Bill Fiasco in DC - Passed today 11/30/2010

I wanted to bring you all an update on something troubling.  DC is at it again, being stupid as they typically are.  Today, once again, they passed an ignorant excuse of a bill, and I'm sure most of them haven't read even a tiny piece of it.  Again, that's pretty typical, so whatever.  Anyhow, I took an older article from  downsizedc.org and posted it here so you could see what was included in this brilliant bill that passed the Senate.  Enjoy the reading, and if you want to show some support, please, get over to https://secure.downsizedc.org/contribute/ and donate a little something, if you have any to spare.  All your contributions are used to fight ignorance and abusively large government.  downsizedc.org is one of my favorite sites on the web today.  Check it out, and I bet you'll agree.

Mike

 

Food Safety: URGENT: Stop the FDA Takeover of Your Food Supply

Posted by James Leroy Wilson

S.510, the fraudulently-named "Food Safety" bill, is scheduled for a cloture vote TODAY!
We want this bill defeated, but we also have a Plan B. Amendments proposed by Senators Tester and Hagan would allay many (although not all) of our concerns with the bill. Their amendments will exempt small farms and businesses from the most onerous regulations.
And so we're asking you to you to send a letter to Congress to A) vote "no" on cloture, and B) if cloture passes, to support the Tester-Hagan amendments. You can send your letter using using DownsizeDC.org's Freedom to Farm campaign.
The hard-wired message says, "Please oppose H.R. 2749, S.510, and all other so-called food safety bills."
In addition, I added these comments, which you have permission to borrow from or copy . . .

You must support Sen. Coburn's "hold" on S.510 and oppose the cloture vote scheduled for today.
But if cloture passes, I insist that you support the Tester-Hagan Amendments to S.510.
S.510 gives the FDA authority to shut down family farms and smalll businesses, but Tester-Hagan would strip the FDA of that arbitrary power.
Tester-Hagan also relieves family farms of unnecessary regulations and burdensome costs.
One example of the harm S.510 will do if Tester-Hagan does NOT pass: the FDA estimates it will take 100 hours by a trained team of personnel to develop a HACCP (hazard control) plan for businesses making products such as leafy green salad mixes or broccoli florets. http://farmandranchfreedom.org/sff/TesterAmdFacts11-12-10.pdf
Small businesses cannot afford this kind of expense, and they will be crushed. The FDA will seize control of the food supply, and Big Ag will seize the profits. Consumers will be denied access to healthy, fresh, locally-marketed food.
I therefore insist you support the Tester-Hagan amendments to S.510. They exempt family farms and small processors who were NOT to blame for the foodborne illness outbreaks of recent years . . .
* Local markets, where producers and consumers know each other, already create strong incentives for accountability
* Small producers are already regulated by local, state, and current federal laws
Vote no on cloture, but if it passes, please support the Tester-Hagan amendments. They will prevent a flawed bill from becoming catastrophic.

END LETTER
You can send your letter using DownsizeDC.org's Educate the Powerful System.
And please also CALL your Senators TODAY. You can find their phone numbers when you are logged into the system.
And please tell your friends TODAY about this! Forward this message and post it on your social networking sites.
Thank you for being a DC Downsizer.
James Wilson
Assistant Communications Director
DownsizeDC.org

Just a few links for Constitutional Information

If you have never read the United States Constitution, you really should.  Beyond that, you should also be well versed in your state constitution, and state laws.  While I can't provide you everything you need for every state, being that I'm in Washington State, I do have just a little bit of knowledge of how to find things for here, so I'm going to share those with you.

First, if you're an Android user, you can get the US Constitution on your phone.  I have it, it's awesome, and it's very easy to navigate.  What's more, you can always learn a little more by looking things up, and it's convenient to have with you.  The one I found that I like the best is  located at http://www.androidzoom.com/android_applications/reference/united-states-constitution_kab.html, however there are a ton more that can be found just by searching androidzoom.com.  http://www.androidzoom.com/android_applications/us+constitution/by_matching is a link to the results from typing "US Constitution" in the search bar at the top of the androizoom.com web page.  There are several different free and paid versions.  The one that I found and prefer is a free app, as I don't see much reason to pay for something when I can get equal or better quality for free.

Unfortunately, the only version of the RCW (Revised Code of Washington - The State's Laws, for laymen) that I have been able to find, thus far, is a paid app.  As such, I have not tried it out.  You can find it at http://www.androidzoom.com/android_applications/reference/revised-code-of-washington_gsbn.html if you're interested in giving it a try.  It looked pretty well organized from the pictures I saw, but again, I haven't tried it.

Even more unfortunately, there apparently is NO Washington State Constitution available as an Android App.  At least, not yet.  Perhaps I'll need to get busy on that sometime soon, but I do have a lot going on already.  I think I will look into it, though, and perhaps start on something, even it if moves slow. 

I'm sure there are several similar apps available on iPhone, however, being that I don't use an iPhone, and don't feel like playing with their little marketplace trying to find those things, I'm going to leave those searches up to you folks that have the iPhone.  I'm relatively certain that it can't be all that hard, but I honestly don't feel like taking up the time to do so.

Now, for those of you that prefer a computer, or perhaps want a link you can use darned near anywhere, here are some great locations.

US Constitution:
http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html - I like this one.  Neatly organized.
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html - The 'official' Constitution Page.  For what that's worth.

RCW (Revised Code of Washington):
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/ - This is both official AND useful.  Well organized, easy to navigate.

Washington State Constitution:
http://www.leg.wa.gov/LAWSANDAGENCYRULES/Pages/constitution.aspx - Again, official and useful.  Amazing.  Washington State is really dumb about some things, but they certainly have their laws and legal pages neatly organized for people to search.  I gotta hand it to whichever person was most directly responsible for putting that together, they did a great job. 

For those of you who don't speak 'legalesse', may I recommend that you do a little googleing and see what you can see.  Perhaps typing 'Washington State Constitution Explained' would yield some good results that would help you better understand what you're reading.  I'm no lawyer, and I do struggle with some of the wording in this stuff very frequently.  I consider myself relatively well educated, although not formally, but it is very difficult to untangle the bologna that they throw together into a sentence, sometimes.  Just remember, google is your friend, and you can learn a lot by studying your rights.  For instance, you can learn how to defend yourself from unjust persecution by the State or Federal Government.  No small thing, in this day of continual unjust persecution of the citizens by overzealous officials.  Learn it, and be prepared to use it regularly.

Senate Elections

I know it's been a little while since I've written anything, and I apologize for that.  It's been a rather busy time for me, and I haven't had a lot of extra time for writing down my thoughts, but now I have something that I have been considering for a while, and would like to share with you.


How many of you really believe that the United States of America is a Democracy?  Really? 

I know, I know.... it's been taught to you for years, it's all over the news, and in the schools.  Democracy is good, anything else is bad.  Well, that's not true.  Actually, Democracy as a form of government is horrible.  Democracy means that NOTHING gets done without a full vote by the people.  That sounds great on the surface, doesn't it?  Until you realize that means the people can vote for ANYTHING, and it must happen.  That's called mob rule, not rule of law.  That means, if the majority of people want anyone with red hair executed, all the red heads in the country are now in danger of being arrested and killed.  Laugh all you want, it's true, and horrible things can (and have) happened in a Democracy.

This is the reason why our Founding Fathers made the US a REPUBLIC, NOT a Democracy.  Does anyone know the difference?  If you do, consider yourself above average, because most Americans don't know the difference, and many of those that do still think that we live in a Democracy, because that's what they've been told through their lives.  Here's the big difference.  In a Republic, you elect PEOPLE to pass laws, control the Government, and represent your position on things.  You vote for a person who you believe will uphold your views (at least the majority of them) on the issues you feel strongest about.  In a Democracy, you directly form the laws your darned self, and the Government blindly carries out the will of the people, without regard to justice.  Republics are (supposedly) safer, as the people are the check on the officials, the officials are the check on the people, etc.

When the US was formed, they took it a step further.  Instead of just having a Senate that controlled things, with maybe an Emperor or President or Prime Minister sitting as the 'Head of the Senate', the Founding Fathers wanted to have checks and balances on the checks and balances.  So, things were divided thusly.  The House or Representatives would be formed to allow the PEOPLE of the several states to elect a person from their own individual districts that would best represent the will of the people of that area.  These individual districts are referred to as Congressional Districts, and are redrawn every 10 years following the census.  Each elected representative has roughly 650,000 people that he or she represents.  Each state must be allowed at least one (even if only 5 people live in that state, they get one), but will be allowed more and more representation as their population grows.  For instance, California has 53 representatives, where Montana has 1. 

The Senate was formed to represent the interests of the States.  The will of the people is not always the best thing for the state, and the will of the state is not always the best thing for the people.  In order for anything to really get done, the Senate (made up of two people from every state) and the House (based on population, as described in the paragraph above) need to agree on it.  As the Senate was formed to represent the States interests, the Senators were originally elected BY THE STATES GOVERNMENTS, NOT BY THE PEOPLE.  This was changed in 1913, and the election of Senators was given to the people (mob rule) instead of being an appointed position from each states legislature, as was intended.  (http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/Direct_Election_Senators.htm).

Now, I'm sure some of you are wondering what the problem is with this.  Let's break it down a bit.  If you were going in for a hearing on child custody, and you had a lawyer, and your crazy hooked on crack ex had a lawyer, and you wanted to make sure that you had a fair hearing, and that you got your case across as effectively as possible, so that the judge could make the right decision, would you allow your lawyer to be paid for (and thus, representing the best interests of) your crazy ex?

Perhaps that sounds a little out there, but I assure you, it isn't.  By taking the naming of the Senators away from the States, and giving that power to the people, that means that the States have NO REPRESENTATION IN WASHINGTON DC.  This means that the rule of the people, even when unjust (and sometimes flat out ignorant) will be imposed on everyone else, even when it's discriminatory, illegal, violates their civil rights, or violates the constitution.  I submit, as example A, the new 'Obamacare' law that REQUIRES all Americans to purchase health insurance.  A flat out violation of our liberties as an individual.  We are required to make a purchase, or pay a fine to the IRS (which is completely unrelated to the health care industry, and also a huge violation of our civil rights, as it forcibly removes our money from us before we even see it - IRS = Wealth Redistribution System = Communism..... and yet, we all silently submit for fear of prosecution).  Many states have joined together to challenge this retarded law, at least in part, and we wait to see what will happen with that, however, if the STATES had the representation in Congress that they were originally given, and should still have, this law would have been challenged back and forth between the House of Representatives and the Senate until there was something agreeable to both, which then would have passed.  Certainly, health care reform is something that could benefit millions of people in this country, but what gives anyone the right to STEAL from you, to give to someone else? 

YOU give the GOVERNMENT the right to STEAL from you, if you choose to do nothing and allow the same things to continue happening.